Kairos' grip on the beam tightened several times over. His mind went into overtime as he calculated how fast he would have to run to get to the exit before Sara did. From his judgment, if he ran as fast as possible, then he should be able to make it through the exit before she did.
In other words, he had to make the decision right now.
Countless different thoughts rushed through his head at the same time. At its culmination, it all came down to one thing.
It was a hallucination.
He found that the timing made too little sense. The actual chances of the timing being so tight at his full speed were just too coincidental. However, he came to the decision to move.
Because if it really was wrong, then he could just use his future sight to check.
After extending his future vision to four seconds, he began running at full speed. For the first three seconds, nothing changed, making it seem like it really wasn't a hallucination. But near the end of the fourth second, he saw himself suddenly breaking out of it.
Flash forward to the present, he stopped his sudden urge to go forward, and took a deep breath, calming his racing heart.
Everything was fine.
Taking slow steps while holding onto the beam, he continued onward. Once they reached the end, the beam slid down into a nook before disappearing entirely. Sara looked over with a smile.
"Wow, I'm quite surprised that you made it through all on your first try. Even I wasn't able to do that, and I'm the best that I've seen."
Kairos let out a sigh as a bitter smile formed on his face.
"It was tougher than I imagined, if nothing else. Though I have to say walking on a pole was quite annoying."
Sara raised an eyebrow and let out a giggle.
"Walking on what pole? There was never a pole that we were walking on, dummy."
In shock, Kairos slowly turned around, and sure enough, there was no pole. It was only a wide platform the entire time. After blinking a few times, he sucked in a deep breath.
"Well, it seems I'm not as immune to hallucinations as I thought."
Sara let out a light laugh.
"All things considered, you did very well."
Kairos didn't say anything back. Although he was essentially only receiving compliments, he couldn't feel too cocky when a hallucination had completely blindsided him.
"Whatever, let's just continue on."
Going into the next room, they found themselves in a rest area, and there were some rewards waiting for them. The room itself wasn't too large, but it wasn't too small. It would be considered comfy by most.
In the center, was a table with a set of four black orbs lined up. Kairos went over and picked one of them up.
"They've given four of them. That's quite nice."
Sara smiled and waved at him weakly, before going to a wall and leaning against it.
"You can have them all. I wasn't expecting to get here, and you need it more than I do."
However, despite the offer in good faith, he shook his head.
"I don't want to owe anyone anything. Or at the very least, I don't want to owe you guys that much."
Sara shrugged her shoulders with a giggle.
"Alright, we can split them evenly then."
She took two of them after saying that and promptly swallowed one of them while stowing the other one away. As for Kairos, he just directly ate both of them, using his second stomach to rapidly consume them.
He felt new layers of flesh form within him, while the existing ones also toughened up. The sensation continued for a long while, proving that the black orbs were definitely not something insignificant. Kairos was half expecting a system message to pop up telling him that his Abyss form was upgraded to E rank. However, even as the changes settled down, nothing happened.
Kairos let out a small sigh before moving on. As he gradually settled down, Sara walked over to one of the walls of the room, which had a small ledge. She reached over and grabbed something on it.
Though it was only a small black bead.
Sara took a look at it for a while before stowing it away. She then looked over at Kairos and pointed at the opposite side.
"There should be something there for you on the other side. The first time you complete the dungeon you get something that's pretty good on your side. At the very least, it will sell pretty well back in the city. After that, it just gives you a small compensation prize."
Kairos looked over at the ledge and walked up to it. When he stuck his hand out towards it, something suddenly shot out, forcing itself into his hand. It was a black set of brass knuckles with claws at the end.
He manually piloted his flesh to move his glasses away and looked at it.
[Wolf Gloves]
[Gloves with claws in the shape of a wolf's. Appears to be sturdier than steel by several times. Unknown additional functionality.]
The only real information he was given was that it was tougher than steel. The unknown functionality made him a tiny bit apprehensive, but it wouldn't be considered 'something worth selling' if its only property was being tough. Kairos was willing to bet on that along with his future vision.
Although they functioned as knuckles, there was a leather portion that allowed it to be worn as a glove.
After a moment of hesitation, Kairos decided to try it on, and it fit perfectly.
He clenched and unclenched his hands a few times to get a feel. The claws remained in the same place more or less. Although they were somewhat restrictive, it was fairly reasonable to use them along with another weapon.
With that in mind, Kairos decided to keep it instead of selling it, at least until he figured out what it actually did.
Sara laid down on the seats of the table and closed his eyes.
"We should take a break for now. Even if the only thing the previous tests did was make you a bit anxious, the further tests will also test your mentality, so it would be best to take a rest."
Kairos looked at her for a little while silently. Eventually, Sara gave a small pout.
"You don't trust me enough to sleep next to me?"
Kairos' eyelid twitched.
"Don't say it like that. Even if we are the only two people here."
Sara stretched before letting out a weak groan.
"Well, at least I'm going to get some sleep. If you really don't want to then that's up to you."
Soon after, she let out snoring sounds. Kairos' eyes widened in surprise. He didn't think that she would be able to do such a thing so easily. Though then again, she was a seer. Kairos imagined that she divined that she would be safe in the future somehow, thus wasn't afraid of him.
Although he didn't exactly feel comfortable sleeping in the same room with someone he wasn't too familiar with, he also knew that it would happen several times after. Worrying about it now was being overly dramatic.
As such, he just lay down on the opposite side and closed his eyes. It was at this point that Kairos realized it was quite a while since he last slept. Not that it was absolutely necessary with his constitution, but it would still help.
In the end, sleep found him quickly.
Kairos found himself in a dream. However, it was a rather strange one, if he said so himself.
He was in his room, sitting on a bed before the whole apocalypse thing happened. To his left, was an awfully familiar wolf sitting on the floor, with larger than normal fangs. And to his right, was an awfully unfamiliar woman, one with blonde hair and needlessly large... assets, both in the front and the back.
She was wearing a white cloth that covered all it was supposed to, though it didn't cover too much more than that. She appeared to be wearing makeup with her bright red lips and strangely smooth skin, but there were no clear signs of that.
Kairos massaged his temple with a bit of frustration.
"What the hell is going on here..."
"Woof!"
The wolf let out a bark before panting with its tongue out the side. It was the avatar that he unlocked after evolving himself. As for the blonde lady, no matter how hard Kairos thought, he couldn't think of anyone that even came close to her description.
Perhaps he met other female blonde people, but that was as far as that went.
The blonde lady smiled after looking at the wolf and walked over to begin petting it on the head like it was completely natural. And the wolf looked a lot more like a puppy right now, really leaning into the pets and wagging its tail excitedly.
Kairos pointed at her weakly.
"You... are Tiana's power?"
This chapter is updat𝓮d by fre(e)webnov(l).com